"Unlike Bradley Manning, the Army private who was convicted of leaking government secrets, the 30-year-old Snowden is enjoying a surge of unlikely support from the right. Republican members of Congress are calling him a whistleblower, not a traitor. Columnists from right-wing websites are getting an earful from readers who say he’s a hero. In the last two major polls on the subject, more than half of Republicans and independents insist Snowden is a whistleblower, with less than 40 percent saying otherwise. “Republicans like John Boehner and John McCain are with Barack Obama against Snowden,” Shirley pointed out. “But let’s face it, (Snowden’s) perspective is more consistent with rugged individualism and privacy and everything that comes along with traditional conservatism. Isn’t it interesting that the more invectives are hurled at Snowden (by the establishment), the more the numbers rise in his favor?” Snowden, who tipped off the media about the massive collection of Americans’ phone records and the government’s ability to track Internet and social media use, has been charged with espionage here in the States and has just received temporary asylum from Russia. Early supporters feared the media and politicians would concentrate so much on picking apart the messenger that the programs he revealed in early June to The Guardian would not receive proper scrutiny. Yet anger appears to be growing with each new revelation about the surveillance state. Meanwhile, Congress seems poised to finally do something to put boundaries on the agency (NSA) and the legal framework (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court) that enables it. “Look at that vote in the House,” said Shirley, pointing to Republican Rep. Justin Amash’s amendment to defund the NSA’s spy program. It was thwarted by only a slim margin in the Republican-dominated chamber. “That vote was earth shattering.” Edward Snowden’s father, Lon Snowden, has emerged as a surprising catalyst for conservative support. A retired chief warrant officer with the U.S. Coast Guard, Snowden raised his son in a patriotic community alongside military and police, and Edward’s mother is a chief deputy clerk at the federal court in Baltimore." theamericanconservative/articles/the-right-rallies-to-edward-snowden/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-right-rallies-to-edward-snowden
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 18:52:03 +0000
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